James Gunn felt as if his ‘career was over’ after ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ firing

James Gunn was reinstated as the director of the third "Guardians of the Galaxy" in March. (Jordan Strauss/Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

James Gunn never expected to return for the third installment to the “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchise.

The director, who was fired last year after years-old tweets featuring vulgar jokes resurfaced, said in his first interview since being rehired that he had resigned himself to the idea that he wasn’t coming back to “Guardians.”

Advertisement

“I was writing Suicide Squad and thought of Guardians 3 as being long gone,” Gunn told Deadline. “I guess it was a possibility for a while, but the initial conversations with (Disney CCO) Alan (Horn) weren’t, ‘Let’s figure out if I should come back.' It was, ‘Let’s talk about this.’ It was like the break-up of my marriage. I got divorced, and then had those conversations with my ex-wife: ‘Let’s get along as well as we possibly can and be kind to each other because we’re both a large part of each other’s lives.’ ”

Gunn directed the first two movies in the “Guardians of the Galaxy” series, which is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and stars an ensemble cast featuring Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel and Dave Bautista.

He was ousted last July following the reemergence of the tweets, which were published years earlier and included jokes about rape and pedophilia.

“That first day… I’m going to say it was the most intense of my entire life," Gunn told the entertainment outlet. “There have been other difficult days in my life, from the time I got sober when I was younger, to the death of friends who committed suicide. But this was incredibly intense. It happened, and suddenly it seemed like everything was gone. I just knew, in a moment that happened incredibly quickly, I had been fired. It felt as if my career was over."

Shortly after his firing, the cast members of the “Guardians” movies signed an open letting sharing their support for Gunn.

Gunn told Deadline he feels badly ― and has for a long time ― about some of his past remarks.

“I know that people have been hurt by things that I’ve said, and that’s still my responsibility, that I wasn’t as compassionate as I should be in what I say,” he said. “I feel bad for that and take full responsibility. Disney totally had the right to fire me. This wasn’t a free speech issue. I said something they didn’t like and they completely had the right to fire me. There was never any argument of that.”